STORYBEAST

Welcome to our first LEGENDARY episode of Season 3! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston have the pleasure of interviewing TWO legendaries: Kamilah Cole and Emily Forney. Kamilah Cole is a Jamaican-born, American-raised author. By day she works in publishing and by night she frantically types word...

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story. In this episode, you'll hear: Beastly updates An overview of Season 3 legendaries Gabi bringing back the spicy hope about Courtney's agent and her book release "Getting writing time back" The beginnings of an endless conversation on "butter" from Seven Figure Fiction Co...

Welcome back to the final Season 2 episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story with Summer beast, Nadine Flint.  WARNING: This episode contains *a lot* of food talk! In this season finale, you'll hear about: writing fear separating your fear from your characters' fear(s) working through and alongside fear support systems and thei...

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Kelly Andrew. Kelly Andrew is an author, wife, mother, and dog-mom from New England. When not busy writing she can be found parsing through flea markets or hand-feeding her crows....

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story with Summer beast, Nadine Flint.  In this episode, you'll hear: about story flavour bombs the Beasts share what you can learn from cooking shows as a writer: microtension! scene hops! pacing! looking at villainy from a different perspective! relationship building! tr...

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Stacey McEwan. Stacey is a fantasy author and school teacher, living on the Gold Coast in Australia with her husband and two kids. She is known on social media for relentlessly bo...

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast! This week, Gabi and Nadine fly solo in their chat about the transformative power of story.  In this episode, you'll hear about: interpreting excerpts by emotion using sentence cadence and rhythm to evoke emotion how reading as a writer might take different forms for you reading while drafting vs reading while revising playing with structure: timel...

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Rachel Gillig. Rachel Gillig was born and raised on the California coast. She is an author, with a B.A. in literary theory and criticism from UC Davis. If she is not ensconced in...

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story with Summer beast, Nadine Flint.  In this episode, you'll hear: about the dynamics of creative spaces: growing into your creative space, and creative spaces that grow with you one of us confessing to being a trash raccoon (can you guess who?) and one being a total Sh...

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Rachel Jenkins. Rachel loves stories in all forms. An educator at heart, she has taught literature and communications at the high school level and coordinated learning assistance...

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story with Summer beast, Nadine Flint.  In this episode: Courtney makes a public apology to one of our Beasties about a Very Serious Snack Oversight  Courtney picks a fight with Gabi and gets one with Nadine instead Girl dinners get mixed reviews from Gabi The Beasts discuss p...

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Rachel Griffin. Rachel Griffin is the New York Times bestselling author of THE NATURE OF WITCHES, WILD IS THE WITCH and her latest BRING ME YOUR MIDNIGHT, releasing summer of 2023...

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story with Summer beast, Nadine Flint.    In this episode:  Nadine exorcises the ghost in the machine the Beasts dive into Romantasy, including the associate importance of beats and genre expectations Courtney references some doorstopper standalones and companion novels she lo...

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Courtney Shack, Ghabiba Weston, and Nadine Flint have the pleasure of interviewing Marina Green. Marina Green was lucky enough to grow up in a house filled with books. It is no wonder that, even before she learned how to read, she used to make up her own st...

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story with Summer beast, Nadine Flint.    In this episode:  you'll hear about routines and how they're not only for kids. the Beasts discuss where they've been finding inspiration lately. the Beasts dissect beliefs around first lines. Ghabiba cannot understand Time. Courtney's...

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Courtney Shack, Ghabiba Weston, and Nadine Flint have the pleasure of interviewing H.M. Long. H. M. Long is a Canadian fantasy writer, author of the HALL OF SMOKE series and THE WINTER SEA series who loves history, hiking, and exploring the world. She lives...

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story with Summer beast, Nadine Flint.    In this episode:  you'll hear about buttons for installing taste the Beasts discuss dark hair, sharp jawlines, and essential elements for a good book partner Courtney brings a surprise show-and-tell piece the Beasts touch on pacing...

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. Bianca Marais is the author of three novels, the latest being the bestselling THE WITCHES OF MOONSHYNE MANOR. She's a cohost on the popular podcast, The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, and has won an Excellence in Teaching Award for teaching creative writing throug...

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story with Summer Beast, Nadine Flint. In this episode: the Beasts talk manuscript wish lists and what's on thiers the Beasts wingwomen each other in the true spirit of friendship Courtney turns Midnight Chanter with "we like it, we love it, we want some more of it&qu...

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. GennaRose Nethercott is a writer and folklorist. Her first book, THE LUMBERJACK'S DOVE, was selected by Louise Glück as a winner of the National Poetry Series, and whether authoring novels, poems, ballads, or even fold-up paper cootie catchers, her projects are all root...

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story with Summer Beast, Nadine Flint. In this episode: none of us know what Victoria Day is the plural of synopsis comes into question we tackle multiple timeline, dual POV synopses we discuss how to reframe your stories to hook an agent we highlight overlapping tools for bot...

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. Lauren Blackwood is a Jamaican American living in Virginia who writes Romance-heavy Fantasy for most ages. When not writing, she's a musician and a tiramisu connoisseur. She's the New York Times bestselling author of WITHIN THESE WICKED WALLS and WILDBLOOD. **Keep a...

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story with Summer Beast, Nadine Flint. In this episode, you'll hear: Courtney's burrito life outfit Therapist Courtney shares tips and tricks to address you mental health as a writer and a human We be real Writing with anxiety Overcoming brain resistance  We mention Th...

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. Today, we are joined by literary agent Suzie Townsend. Prior to joining New Leaf, Suzie graduated film school, earned her Masters of Education, taught high school English, and coached a swim team. In her spare time, she read everything she could, which prompted her move to...

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story with Summer Beast, Nadine Flint. This episode is all about character POV's and narrative voice.   In this episode:  Courtney brings a dagger There may or may not be a discussion about alpha monkeys We dive into the factors that influence character POV choice and the valu...